Those who know me in person will agree that I don’t have very good people skills. When confronted with an unknown face I tend to stay quiet and observe the individual, before I feel comfortable or confident enough to communicate. Often, if I do talk prematurely it is like my tongue knots up and I begin to slur words. At its worst case, my mind will go blank and I forget the question that was asked of me, or the topic brought up. This is something I have been working on fixing in the past few years. But, I am still nowhere near the stage where I could just walk up to a random person and start a chat with them like I’ve known them my whole life.

Influence

I get so amazed how photographers like Zack Arias or Charlie Clift are just able to walk up to people and pretend like they have known them their whole lives. The individuals they approach seem to respond in a similar fashion, they suddenly feel so comfortable around them.
This happened to me on several occasions where a random person would approach me and begin a conversation. Where, unlike my usual tortoise routine, where I back away into my shell and avoid further confrontation. I would feel inclined to talk. I have no idea how they do that but this stuff is contagious, it’s a skill I would like to acquire sometime soon.

My Plan

So, in order to help me develop this skill, I have decided to assign myself with a bunch of photography projects. Projects that I will be actively pursuing over the next couple of months.

As you might have guessed, these projects will entail me talking to some random people. But, it won’t be just about asking a random person if I could take their picture. I want to try to get to know them in the short period of time. I want to capture their stories and personalities.